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Thousands enjoy sunshine and then dance in rain at Maryport blues

Maryport Blues was a festival of two halves pulled together by the Soul City Walkers.

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The group, from Carlisle, proved to be the biggest crowd pleasers of the weekend when they appeared on a baking hot stage on Saturday and in the cold, rainy conditions of yesterday.

Organisers are delighted with this year's festival, which they say was one of the best in years and remains one of the highlights of Cumbria’s music calendar.

There were larger than usual attendances in the main marquee and huge crowds watching the outdoor rock stage – with over 1,000 in on Saturday afternoon again for the Soul City Walkers and for The Union.

On Saturday night, when the band headlined on the outdoor stage, a crowd of around 600 danced in the rain and reluctantly allowed them to leave the stage only when the festival's licence expired!

The main stage headliner on Saturday was Coco Montoya who made blues accessible with his middle-of-the-road sound.

Danny Bryant, who first came to Maryport as a trail artist in 2000, was the final headliner this year delighting the audience with his sometimes introspective but always exciting sound.

The trail, which consisted of about 30 bands playing around the pubs, clubs, cafes and outdoor stages, included some new stars in town – TJ & The Suitcase and Half Deaf Clatch, to name but two.

The family stage was shut down on Saturday when the weather broke because of health and safety concerns, when fencing started blowing loose in the wind.

Publicans welcomed the rain as punters stayed outside in the sun with their own drink on Saturday but moved inside when the weather changed.